Company Policy Pt. 02

~Part Two~

Shelby put her cell phone down.

"Did you call that lady yet?" Her step-brother had just asked her. He was dripping wet with a well-worn blue bath towel held tight around his waist and had just come into the kitchen where she was. He had a second, yellow bath towel draped over his head.

Shelby nodded. "Just hung up with her. She seemed nice. Um, Jamie, do we know her? I can't figure out how she knows me."

He shrugged. "Like I said, she asked for you last night. You must know her from the store or maybe from somewhere else?" He said.

Shelby shrugged. "Anyway, I got me an interview for Monday!" She said.

Jamie's face broke into a grin and he leaned in for a fist bump. "Hey, that's awesome!" He said. "But I still think that's fucking awful what old man Snyder did to you. I should pee in his coffee in the breakroom or something. Asshole."

Shelby wrinkled her nose. "Ewww. Don't do that. I'm moving on to better things. That's all in the past now," she said with a grin.

Jamie nodded, using the towel on his head to dry his hair one-handed.

"What are you getting all cleaned up for?" She asked.

Jamie grinned at her again. "Gonna go hang out with Terri."

"Terri, huh?!" She said, smiling widely in a teasing manner. "Your new girlfriend?"

Jamie rolled his eyes. "Yes. That one," he said.

Shelby snickered. "Don't forget condoms, lover boy."

Jamie snorted. "Are you kidding me right now? Duh," he added. He turned to walk back down the hallway but paused.

"Hey, do you still have that face cream...that zit stuff?"

Shelby nodded. "Under the bathroom sink on my side. Its store brand something. It's got salicylic acid in it."

He nodded. "Thanks...sis," he said, turning and abruptly dropping one edge of his towel, providing her an unobstructed view of his naked ass.

"Oh, my God!" She said, throwing her hands up over her eyes. "It's so blindingly white!!"

He chuckled and sauntered down the hallway. She heard his bedroom door close at the end of the hall and she was then alone.

She wasn't sure where her stepdad was at the moment, but looking out the trailer window his truck was gone so she knew he wasn't around. Probably was out at the store maybe. It was a tiny, local, small-town store with a single gas pump that carried mostly essentials like frozen hamburger meat and bread and eggs and milk - and also cold beer.

Mike, her stepdad, liked to sit on the bench in front of the store and talk to everybody that came and went. He was a friendly, sturdy, down-home Southern transplant with a grey-white beard and a Razorback ball cap whom everybody liked and seemed to be good friends with. She smiled to herself. He was in his early fifties and though he was a Yankee now and had been for several years, he still had that hint of a southern accent that probably would never go away. Not that she wanted it to. It made him who he was.

To her, he was a saint. He sure had been nice to her. Just like their two stray dogs they had, he also took in stray people like herself. He hadn't had to continue to let her live with him and his son because her mom was totally out of the picture now and Shelby was not his responsibility in the slightest. But she would be forever grateful to him because of his kindness. He had for sure saved her from several years of foster care. Hell, he had even thrown her a surprise graduation party a couple of weeks ago. It had been such a sweet gesture it had made her tear up. Her bio dad probably didn't even know where she lived, and Mike - though no biological relation to her at all - had organized a party for her with a Walmart cake, and he'd even gotten a recipe from the old ladies at church and had made pink party punch. She would always be indebted to him which was why she needed a job. She'd worked at McDonald's part time during school, but she'd really enjoyed the hardware store for as long as she'd worked there. It had been a real job with decent hours and benefits. She knew Mike would never ask her for rent money, but she was determined to pay him back in some way, anyway.

Mike worked weeknights at the Honda plant that was a good forty minute drive from their trailer. Normally he'd be sleeping now, but he liked his weekend days. He'd never be a rich man, but she knew he liked sirloin steaks and a pricy local microbrewed beer that he would never buy for himself. She could buy the steaks for him from time to time now. The beer would have to wait until she was old enough, but that day would come. In the meantime she insisted on paying her own cell phone bill and buying her own beauty and hygiene products. She did whatever she could do to help so she didn't feel like she was a burden on him, though he always assured her that she was not.

Shelby stood up. She might as well take down the sparkly "Congratulations, Graduate!" banner that still hung up on one wall of the kitchen. She'd fold it up and put it in the shoebox where she'd placed the other cards she'd gotten from her graduation. She was officially a high school graduate now and was ready to take on the world.

But Shelby frowned. She opened the small dishwasher and started unloading clean dishes.

Taking on the world meant heading to college for a couple of her friends. And in a perfect world she'd have joined them. Lord knows she was every bit as smart as they were. She had taken calculus just like they had. But there was no money for her to do anything like that. Her biological dad had been in and out of prison and had been completely out of her life since she was five - she barely even remembered what he looked like - and the last she knew, her mom had fucked up her sobriety and was on heroin again. Neither of them had anything to give to her, anyway. Except for her name. She had always liked her name. A country music fan to the core, her mom had loved Reba McEntyre. Reba's son Shelby was a good enough name even to give to a girl, so her mother had thought. And she'd been right.

Shelby looked out the kitchen window as she put the last glass away in the 1980's dated cabinets. The sun was out and it was a nice Saturday in the trailer park. It was getting warm outside. Warm enough for the shorts and sweatshirt she was wearing, and maybe warm enough to sit outside if one sat in the sun.

She took the banner and walked down the hallway to her bedroom. Their trailer was barely over 900 square feet so it didn't take long for her to walk it, and she turned into the first bedroom.

It was mostly a typical teenage girl's room. She had movie posters on her walls and a flowery pink comforter on her twin bed that Mike had bought her when she'd moved in. She hated it, but had never had the heart to tell him. He hadn't had any female children, and he evidently thought all girls liked pink and flowers.

"Hey, Bingo."

The little brown dog on the bed opened one big eye and looked at her.

"How's my good boy?" She asked. She patted him on the head as she walked by. He was a Chihuahua and ever since she'd moved in he'd been "her" dog.

Their other dog Roscoe was truly a mutt. He was a medium sized dog but was a mix of so many different breeds it was hard to tell what he was. He had a lot of hound in him, and maybe some poodle because his black hair was kind of curly. He'd been missing an eye when they got him and though he'd been abused in the past and didn't normally trust men, he'd taken to Mike immediately. Everybody - even dogs - could see the good in Mike. Roscoe was probably napping on Mike's bed.

Down the hallway was Jamie's room. Jamie had the bedroom at the end of the hall and it was a little bit bigger than hers, because his closet extended out that extra bit that her bedroom could not because of the hallway. She supposed that it was fair that he had the bigger room. She was just happy she had a bedroom at all.

"Shelby!" Jamie yelled from the hallway.

"In here!" She called back. He'd already passed her bedroom but he turned around and stuck his head inside. She was on the floor on the other side of her bed putting the graduation banner into her senior memories shoebox.

"Do you care if I take the car?" He asked. They had a little 2004 Blue Honda with paint failure that they shared.

She grinned. "Sure, Hugh Hefner. Clean up any messes you make in the backseat."

Jamie scrunched up his nose. "Fucking hell," he said. "We'll trade up for Terri's brand new, red Chevy Silverado anyway once I get to her house."

"Doesn't it have a backseat too?" Shelby said.

Jamie grinned. "Yes. But it's the truck bed, little step-sis. That's what we use. And an inflatable mattress."

"Blech. Whatever," she said, waving her hand in the air, dismissing him.

He winked and smacked the doorjam with his palm. "See ya around."

"I'll need the car on Monday afternoon for my job interview!" She yelled back at him.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll just drop you off before I go to work, how about that?" he shouted.

Shelby nodded to herself as she heard the front door slam.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shelby finished swirling the toilet brush around the bowl in her stepdad's bathroom and washed her hands really well. It was almost lunchtime and time to meet her friends at one of the local diners.

She heard a knock at the front door. It was her good friend Michelle that lived five trailers down from her on the same street.

Michelle was a pleasantly plump girl with beautiful, thick, pink and purple hair that she liked to wear in 1940's pin-up, calendar-girl style victory rolls. She had played the French horn in the band and had also promised to draw tattoo tracings for all the girls, when they all finally turned 18. Michelle was already enrolled in beauty school for the upcoming summer.

"Hey, babe!" Michelle said. "Ready to go grab some lunch with the girls?"

Today she had on three-inch, bright green, press on nails, each sharpened down to a little point.

Shelby and Michelle did their special handshake they'd done since they were ten. It was harder to do with Michelle's long nails, and it was childish and stupid overall, but that's what made it so great.

"Sure. Come in for a second while I put my shoes on," Shelby said.

Michelle stepped in, being careful to stand on the plastic mat. Their street and yard tended to get muddy when it rained. She was wearing a sweatshirt and shorts just like Shelby was.

"Jamie here?" Michelle asked, glancing around.

Shelby shook her head sadly. "He already left. Sorry."

Michelle looked positively dejected. And Shelby wasn't ever really sure sometimes if she came over so often for her friendship, or to get a glimpse of her stepbrother.

"Damn," Michelle said, leaning against the open door. "That boy is sooooo fine," she said. "How do you stand it, living with him?"

Shelby wrinkled her nose. "He's my stepbrother. I pick his dirty underwear off of the bathroom floor and wash his socks that smell like rancid toxic waste whenever I lose a bet with him," she said. "Besides, you've never smelled him when he's got bad body odor."

Michelle sighed. "I'd happily wash those dirty shorts for him," She said. "In my mouth," she added.

Shelby nearly choked on her laugh. Had Michelle been here a half hour ago and seen his naked ass she would have probably peed her pants.

"And I'd lick his armpits, too," Michelle said.

"God, you are so gross!" Shelby laughed.

"Nah. So, where is he, then?"

"Out with Terri," Shelby said as she grabbed her wristlet and keys.

"Oooh, that makes me so mad," Michelle said. "That girl is so wrong for him. All she wants is sex," she said.

Shelby rolled her eyes. "Welcome to the mind of the average American male," she said. "How, let me ask you, is that a bad thing where he's concerned?"

Michelle raised an eyebrow as an answer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

Marie's Dining was a little eatery on the downtown square. It was located in what used to be the general store when the town had been founded. It still had the original silvery stamped tin ceiling inside. However, like other small towns, malls and other shopping areas with chain stores like Target and Kohl's were built in bigger towns close by, like Wainwright, which was a half hour north from Stationville. Everybody in Stationville went to Wainwright to go shopping at the big name stores.This also made Stationville a bedroom community of Wainwright, because lots of Stationville residents worked in Wainwright and commuted there and back every day.

Big chain stores now claimed shoppers' money and little small downtown areas like Stationville's generally floundered. People were willing to drive farther distances to shop and many of the stores around the square had gone out of business - or burned down - years ago. But some - like Marie's Dining - had returned to the downtown instead of building on the outskirts, so their little hamlet had seen a slight renewal of the downtown area in the past few years. Though three of the four corner banks had closed during the Depression and countless other stores had opened and closed since then, the downtown now securely sported a pharmacy, the diner, a chic bow-tie men's store, an ice cream shoppe, an independent bookstore that specialized in hard-to-find comics and first edition books, and a jewelry store.

Then, of course, just off the square on Main Street was the newish Addington building. It was totally out of place there where turn-of-the-last-century, two and three story brick buildings dominated. Sleek and industrial, the Addington building was made of shiny steel.

As Shelby sat down at their booth, the Addington building reflected the sunshine off of one of the fourth floor windows and it shined right into Shelby's eyes.

"Yikes!" Shelby said, momentarily blinded.

"I'm so sorry, love. Let me close the blinds for you," Marie said as she hurried over. Marie did everything fast, from taking orders to delivering food to chatting.

"How is everybody? Such young girls! Are you enjoying your afternoon? What can I get for you all?"

She gave each girl a menu, but Shelby always got the same thing there: a chicken salad sandwich on toasted wheat bread, seasoned fries, and a dill pickle.

After the four girls ordered, and after Reba McEntyre's song, "Fancy", came on the restaurant speakers, their friend Leena leaned in, her eyes big. She was the most popular of the group, but that wasn't really saying much since their station at school had been one mostly of obscurity. She certainly was the group gossip, however. She was a pretty girl and her hair was so blonde it was nearly white, hanging down almost to her waist.

"Listen to this," Leena said. "I heard that Bobbie Hampton is pregnant! No wonder she was so excited to wear her graduation gown. It hid her bump!"

"Wait. What?! I sat beside her in Government class all last semester and she did not have a baby bump," Lexie said. Lexie was the smartest of the group and was third in their graduating class. She had a full ride scholarship to Purdue University and she planned to major in aerospace engineering.

But Leena was no slouch. She was headed to Indiana State University and planned on teaching kids with learning disabilities. She nodded emphatically. "Yes. I swear it. My sister saw her boyfriend in Walmart in the baby aisle buying formula!"

But Lexie rolled her eyes. "Her boyfriend is Catholic, you doof. He's got way younger siblings at home. It probably was for one of them," she said.

Shelby and Michelle broke out laughing but Leena looked frustrated. "Well, if we have a one year class reunion, we will just see who's right!"

"So how is everybody's summer going?" Michelle asked. "Shelby, any more from that asshole boyfriend?" She asked.

Shelby stiffened, shaking her head. "I've wasted enough time talking about him," she said.

Michelle nodded.

"Babysitting sucks," Lexie offered into the awkward pause.

"The pool is so cold right now. And all the kids look at my boobs," Leena said.

"Are you guarding their lives or watching them watch your boobs?" Lexie said.

"She's got a great rack, no doubt," Shelby put in. And Leena did. She had natural D cups on a body that should have housed a couple of A's. The girl was blessed.

"Jealous?" Leena said to Lexie, doing a torso shimmy so that her boobs jiggled.

"Yes. Actually, I am," Lexie said, looking down the front of her own sweatshirt at her totally flat chest.

The girls all laughed.

"Michelle, what have you been doing?" Leena asked.

"Drawing. Reading. I start beauty school next week. I'm just trying to enjoy my blink of a summer vacation before it's gone."

"Shelby, how goes your new job?" Lexie asked.

Marie buzzed by, dropping off their food and refilling their drinks.

While they ate, Shelby told the girls about her job situation, about how she was suddenly without a job right now but would be at an interview Monday afternoon.

"Wow. That all happened fast," Leena said.

Shelby shrugged. "My interview is just over there," she motioned toward the window.

"The courthouse?" Leena asked.

"No, the Addington building," Shelby said.

The blinds were the sun-shading, see-through sort and all the girls looked to where she had indicated.

"What? Why there?! I heard they torture people there!" Leena said.

Michelle rolled her eyes. "My uncle worked in the dry cleaners on the second floor and he never said anything like that," she said.

Shelby took a bite of her sandwich and shrugged again.

"Let's go check it out after we eat," Lexie said.

When the girls finished eating and paid for their meals, they crossed the street to the courthouse, walking along the sidewalk until they crossed the street again and arrived at the block where the Addington building was.

Lexie and Leena immediately walked up to the first floor windows and cupped their faces against the glass so they could see in.

"Wow. The windows are so dark. I bet they can see out just fine but we can't see in for crap," Lexie said.

"I told you guys. Torture!" Leena insisted.

"Torture is illegal according to the federal Anti-Torture Act, the federal War Crimes Act, the McCain Amendment in the Detainee Treatment Act, the -"

"Shut up, Lexie!" Michelle said. "She didn't say waterboarding. There are lots of forms of 'torture'," Michelle grinned, her eyebrows dancing.

Shelby rolled her eyes. "Think about sex much?" She asked.

"Yes. Yes I do, actually," Michelle said.

"Maybe it's top secret stuff. Like grafting human heads onto animal bodies," Lexie giggled.

"I know whose 'head' I want on my body," Michelle said with a smirk.

All the girls groaned. They had all had their fill of hearing all about Shelby's stepbrother from Michelle.

"Guys, the pool opens soon. I need to get going," Leena said.

"Aww!" Lexie said. "And I have to babysit this evening. Shit. The Gibson twins are nightmares. Last time they hid my car keys and wouldn't tell their parents where they were for like an hour after they'd gotten home. We looked and looked for them like idiots until one of them let it slip they'd dropped them down the laundry chute. I was so pissed!"

"Are we still meeting at the pool when it opens tomorrow?" Michelle asked.

Shelby nodded. "Yep! That's the plan. And is everybody up for the Sunday night sleepover?"

"You know it!" Leena said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Michelle dropped Shelby off at home, Mike, her stepdad, was there.

"Hey!" She said, walking in.

"Well, hi, baby! Where've you been?" He said from the recliner. He was relaxing with his feet up and a can of Bud Light, and was watching a rerun of a Razorback football game.

"Lunch with the friends," she said, putting her keys on the table. "You?"

He took a sip. "Been at the store. Visiting," he said. His entire body suddenly flinched. "Oh hell! That clearly was a touchdown!" He yelled at the TV.

Shelby chuckled. "Why do you watch these college football reruns? You know how they turn out, anyway. You've seen them all already," she added.